Part of Northstar gas line changes hands

Kristen Nelson

Petroleum News

The Regulatory Commission of Alaska as approved an application by Northstar Pipeline Co. LLC and BP Exploration (Alaska) allowing BP to take over a portion of the Northstar Gas Pipeline called the Caribou Cross Section currently operated by Northstar Pipeline as a common carrier pipeline.

The Northstar Gas Pipeline is a 10-inch diameter line, roughly 16.3 miles, which transports fuel gas and injection gas from the Prudhoe Central Gas Facility and Central Compressor Plant to the Northstar Production Facility at Seal Island. The Caribou Crossing is a segment of approximately 1.5 miles at the southern end of the Northstar Gas Pipeline.

When the Northstar Gas Pipeline was constructed BP operated both Northstar and Prudhoe: The Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission gas meter and the gas compressor were installed at the Caribou Crossing location to minimize risks associated with fabrication and construction activities at the Prudhoe facilities.

Because the AOGCC gas meter was installed at Caribou Crossing, the gas carried in that segment of the line was technically Prudhoe gas until it passed the meter. So long as BP operated both Prudhoe and Norstar, “this did not create a significant misalignment of risk or operation and maintenance.”

When the Northstar Pipeline was sold to Harvest Alaska, a Hilcorp subsidiary, in 2014, part of Hilcorp Alaska’s acquisition of some BP properties including Northstar, a “more significant misalignment” was created.

BP, as Prudhoe operator, retained ownership of the AOGCC gas meter. But Harvest-owned Northstar Pipeline now owned and operated the Caribou Crossing portion of the Northstar gas line between the two BP-owned facilities and the AOGCC gas meter, leaving Northstar Pipeline “with no control over either facility or ownership of the gas contained within that pipeline segment.”

That is the basis, RCA said, for the request for approval of discontinued use of the Caribou Crossing segment of the line by Northstar Pipeline.

Northstar will continue to receive gas from BP through the AOGCC gas meter at Caribou Crossing, RCA said in approving the request, and that segment of the line will become a non-regulated field gathering line.

- KRISTEN NELSON